In times of horse stable fires, lead lines are not always available for recovering the horses from the raging fire. There are seldom enough lead lines about the stables, only two or three may be, when the horses most need to be removed from the fire. Time is very limited to get the horses out of the stable once the fire has started. A horse will not move from fire and has to be led away to safety. To a horse, a stall is his safe place and he just does not know fire. Before a horse will move, his head has to be turned as by a lead line for his body to follow. If the horse is not pulled or led he will not move from the fire and burns with the stable. A horse, even after taken to safety and released, will often by himself return to his burning stall and be burned. Thus, there is a massive loss of horses when a stable of horses is consumed by fire. Straw and hay are most flammable. There are never enough stablemen and lead lines to pull out the horses. It is only likely that there are only two or three lead lines available in an ordinary stable of ten or more horses. Only one man can lead one horse at a time. That man must first find a lead line in a stable which may already be filled with smoke and then the man in the same smoke must find the horse and his halter strap to attach the lead line. Little can be seen and the man must grapple with smoke and feel his way. It is no place for one to be who is unfamiliar with the stable. Fire is not planned and is sudden. One has intense heat to contend with.
Lead lines are usually lost or misplaced about a stable and in the darkness will be hard to find. Once found the stable man must enter the hot stall and snap the clip hook of the lead line to a hot metal ring of the halter on the horse's head. The metal parts of the halter will have much heat reflected upon them that is a hindrance and makes it difficult to attach the lead line snap hook to them. The attachment must be made without delay to prevent loss of precious seconds. In thirty seconds, another horse can be burned and in a few minutes, an entire barn consumed with all horses. As many as forty horses have been known to be consumed at one fire. Thousands of horses have perished from smoke and flames. An escaped horse runs back in the burning barn and will be consumed by the fire. Aside from the fire and even in an open field it is difficult to snare a horse with an ordinary lead line. The horse will instinctively avoid his trainer or person with a lead line in his hand, lending much difficulty in the capture of the horse.